Red Army Faction

The Red Army Faction, also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang or Baader-Meinhof Group, was an anti-imperialist and Marxist-Leninist militant group, led by Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Horst Mahler, and Gudrun Ensslin. The RAF lasted from 1970 to 1998, and a series of terrorist attacks in late 1977 became known as "German Autumn". In 1977, Baader, Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe killed themselves in Stammheim Prison in "Death Night" On 20 April 1998, twenty years after most of the leadership killed themselves or were imprisoned, the RAF faxed Reuters, announcing their dissolution.

History
The Red Army Faction was founded in 1970 by West German communists Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, Horst Mahler, and Jan-Carl Raspe, created after several student protests broke out in the late 1960s in West Germany. On 14 May 1970 Baader, Ensslin, Mahler, and Meinhof headed to Jordan after fleeing police in West Germany, and they trained in the West Bank and Gaza with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Marxist-Leninist terrorist group and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), being inspired by their struggles. When they returned home, they gained popular support and robbed banks to raise money, while they also bombed US Army military facilities (they were pro-Soviet Union and saw the West as an antagonistic capitalistic/imperialistic society), German police stations, and Axel Springer press buildings. In June 1972, Baader, Ensslin, Meinhof, Holger Meins, and Jan-Carl Raspe were arrested, but their organization remained strong.

In October 1972, the Red Army Faction was hired by covert Mossad operative Avner Kaufman to help him track down Wael Zwaiter, a Black September Organization member who was said to have been involved in a plot against an El Al airliner, as well as the Munich Massacre that same month. RAF member Andreas, who was trying to make his way up to the upper echelon of the group, wanted to get easily-accessible cash to further his way into the group. Andreas believed that Kaufman, who spoke fluent German and was not easily recognizable as Jewish or a Mossad agent, was the leader of a small independent terrorist unit. Always needing hard currency for their operations, the RAF agreed to help track Zwaiter down for $300,000. The RAF provided logistical support to Kaufman, and one of their female operatives helped him to find Zwaiter himself. When she found Zwaiter, she left in her car, signaling the assassination team that he was nearby. They succeeded in killing him. Shortly after, Andreas introduced Kaufman to a contact of his, a Frenchman named Louis, who was a member of "Le Group", a French assassination business run by his father "Papa".

In the mid-1970s, the RAF underwent several losses. In 1974, Holger Meins died in a hunger strike. In 1975, Meinhof killed herself while in West German custody. In 1977, Baader, Ensslin, and Raspe killed themselves in Stammheim prison's "Death Night". However, the group would not easily be defeated. In 1975, the RAF blew up the West German embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, killing 2 and wounding 10. In 1977, they launched "German Autumn", a series of kidnappings, murders, and attacks that culminated in the assassination of Hanns Martin Schleyer, a powerful business executive. However, in the 1980s there were no major attacks carried out by the RAF. On 20 April 1998, an eight-page letter was faxed to Reuters, in which the Red Armyfaction declared that the group had dissolved.